Brands Struggle With Social Media Proliferation

Big brands are managing an overwhelming number of social media accounts, with an average of 178 accounts per company, according to a recent study.

Companies launched social media with little planning, and without standardized processes, according to Altimeter Group analyst Jeremiah Owyang. Companies that don't get control are at risk of abandoned accounts, inconsistent experience for customers, and untrained employees creating a crisis, Owyang said in a blog post last week.

"Like a disease, social media proliferation will leave companies crippled -- unless they develop a strategy to manage now," the Altimeter Group said in a report. "Beyond coordination challenges, unchecked accounts and disparate customer interactions expose brands to a host of legal, compliance and fragmented brand-perception risks."

The report found that businesses lack clear social goals and strategy. Some 70 percent of enterprises said social media efforts meet business objectives, but only 43 percent said they have a formalized strategy roadmap addressing how social media will meet business goals: "This comparison indicates many companies think they are achieving goals, often without having defined goals or determining how they will be achieved."

Most companies don't have an inventory of their social media assets, and only 26 percent of companies offer social media education to rank-and-file employees.

Brands are unable to provide coordinated customer experience across a variety of tools, according to the report:

One of the greatest challenges with so many accounts under the control of traditionally siloed groups is coordination, yet less than half of companies report having a coordinated approach to social media across the company. At one large company we talked to, more than a quarter of their social accounts had been spammed or were abandoned; 50% were fledgling or only slowly growing, and only the last quarter was deemed "Mature," with sustained customer engagement and consistent content. Elizabeth Rizzo of PR agency Shift Communications told us, "When publishing through these platforms you often can't stay on top of all these messages and can't tell what's been responded to." The result, according to Ken Burbury of Digitas, is "a huge risk in brand reputation or reputation management.

As part of the report, Altimeter looked at products from more than 30 vendors offering social media management systems. But brands are reluctant to adopt tools to manage their social media presence. Often, they upload spreadsheets to a server or manually merge disparate business intelligence systems. Advanced companies spent an average of $272,000 on customer integration efforts to glue systems together.

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Brands' social media has become the new "junk." Eventually smart CMO's will figure it out but right now, it's proliferating like bad chain letters with about as much relevance. Until then, I use it very strategically (and selectively).

@Mitch -- I have unfortunately experienced something like that as well. Not on quite as large of scale but having to deal with nitpickers and poor management has killed a couple of social media campaigns.

It's the same situation with technology and marketing, period. How many websites are still being produced today that were designed without a thought placed towards overall strategy?

Even major brands stumble with websites. I picked on Tide last year for a horrible website whose first move was to pester me to take a survey before I had browsed a single page. I took a second visit today and while it's improved a little, it still lacks a real purpose. If brands still can't develop solid strategies with old online technologies, what hope do they have to master things like social media which require a lot of time and attention?

Multiple brand accounts is a common issue, so is uncoordinated efforts to project company image on social media. In an era where most employees are involved in brand imaging to some extent with their presence on social networks, perhaps it'd be beneficial to make social media usage part of employee orientation and trainings so that all employees are on the same page and in sync with éach other.

Dwhite706 - If all social media gets funneled through one group, I'd be concerned that social media would become too slow and clumsy. Social media sometimes requires response times in minutes, and I'd be concerned centralization could stretch that out to weeks.

You hear horror stories about organizations where every tweet needs to be reviewed by a couple of executive VPs, as well as the Public Relations and Legal departments.

I agree with Alice, I think it does need to funnel through one group. That is one group that is staffed appropriately. For a large organization with multiple business units, you would need to have a team, that manages the social media efforts for the unit. In this way you have focus on each sector, but still have the ability to monitor, respond and react to whats coming in and going out while maintaing as cohesive, consistent brand and tone for all socila media efforts

AliceAMM - Companies with multiple brands should still have a corporate policy regarding social media and it should all be funneled through one office.

Not necessarily funneled through one office; that one office could become a chokepoint. But there definitely needs to be coordination and consistency, while also tailoring the message to the particular audience for a particular brand.

I could go on and on about this, but won't bore you.

Sounds interesting, not boring. Feel free to go on! Or even on and on.

That's there's minimal coordination in the overall online presence in social media seems to show a resistance to recognzing the "real" impact of social media. I see companies coming along as far as creating positions for social media, but there needs to be more.

The risk of not having a common voice across all sites of a company is a recipe for a mess. And I totally agree that a site that isn't getting consistent attention or interaction leaves a very negative impression to those who visit the site. There's an expectation that isn't being met.

Companies with multiple brands should still have a corporate policy regarding social media and it should all be funneled through one office. I could go on and on about this, but won't bore you.

I had interpreted it to mean each BRAND had numerous social media accounts. Naturally companies will have social media campaigns for its various brands, and sooner or later those accounts will get abandoned.

There may have been a zero missing from the $272,00 (sic) figure in the original article.

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Is a massive, three-day industry event featuring A-list speakers like Bill Clinton and Malcolm Gladwell the right approach for a company seeking to generate awareness of its brand? Steve thinks that goes part of the way, but if brands want their names to stick they need to build communities.

CMOs rely on aggregate data for customer preferences and are missing the opportunity to get one-on-one information through social media and other resources, according to a study of 1,734 CMOs conducted by IBM. Watch a Webinar presenting the findings, and get a copy of the report for yourself.

"Moneyball," the new Brad Pitt baseball movie, is one every marketer should see. It's not just about relying on metrics and analytics over gut feelings, it's also about relying on the right metrics and analytics.